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The Nikopol Trilogy
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List Price: $17.95
Our Price: $399.99
Availability: N/A
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Manufacturer: Humanoids - Rebellion
Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 741
EAN: 9781401203849
ISBN: 1401203841
Label: Humanoids - Rebellion
Manufacturer: Humanoids - Rebellion
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 176
Publication Date: 2004-12-01
Publisher: Humanoids - Rebellion
Release Date: 2004-12-01
Studio: Humanoids - Rebellion
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Editorial Reviews:
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The incredible journey of Alcide Nikopol in the company of Horus of Hierakonopolis, the vengeful god and Jill Bioskop, the mysterious women with blue hair, from Paris to Berlin, Cairo to equator City. A unique mix of science fiction, anxiety, humor and strangeness.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Graphic SF Reader
Comment: A story in the Heavy Metal by way of Aeon Flux vein.
This book contains three separate stories. Nikopol is a prisoner, returned to Earth after being in suspended animation for quite a long time.
You might expect a few problems after that, but not to be possessed by an ancient Egyptian god, for one.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Art, Lame Story
Comment: Originally published between 1980-92, the three books by Bosnian-French artist/writer/filmmaker Bilal that comprise this trilogy are collected here in a very nicely printed and bound volume. There's no doubt that they are a stunning achievement in illustration, however it has to be said that they are also a massive disappointment in storytelling. Set in a dystopian future in which the world appears to have reverted into some kind of city-state system, most of the first two books take place in Paris. The city's urban core belongs to the rich and powerful, and zones of increasing poverty and desperation radiate outward. Bilal's dense, detailed artwork is perfectly suited to capturing the dirty, grim cityscape, with crumbling buildings and train stations, ragtag people, and battered trains and planes. The fascist ruling elite are very distinctive, with uniforms and color schemes lifted straight from the Nazi palate and German iconography, accented by garish face paint rendering them horrorshow clowns.
The trilogy opens with a mysterious pyramid containing the pantheon of ancient Egyptian gods hovering over Paris. It seems they need fuel for their pyramid-craft and are negotiating with the fascist governor to supply them (gods who are hostage to fossil fuels, hmmmm) . It is these gods and their inscrutable machinations which drive the story (what story there is) forward, notably, the god Horus' desire to create a new world order. The vehicle for this is Nikopol, a man in stasis who pops out of a space capsule which falls to Earth over Paris (you'd think they'd have built in guidance systems to avoid populated areas). The body of this former dissident becomes the host to Horus, as the ancient god attempts to change the world.
This is all set up within the first part of the first book, and events grow rapidly more nonsensical as the story continues. Bilal has a gift for interesting notions, but is totally incapable of tying them together into any kind of coherent vision. Those who aren't adverse to impressionistic narrative may not mind this, but I found it pretentious and ultimately unsatisfying. There are plenty of funny little moments, such as the Egyptian gods playing Monopoly, or a little creature who lurks in a bar sink, cleaning glasses. There are also plenty of neat ideas about politics, such as the various turf wars in London between various ethnic groups, or the unholy industrial-religious alliance who rules over Equator City. But there are also many more bizarre elements which remain unexplained. The only robot in the book is a very capable AI-enabled construct who falls from the sky with Nikopol, why aren't there others? Why is the telepathic cat green? What are the gargoyle-like cherubs who are multiplying in Notre Dame all about? What's up with the giant egg bombardment in London? There are far too many scenes which don't seem to serve any narrative purpose, and seem to exist solely for Bilal's own amusement.
It also doesn't help that a lot of the dialogue and writing is really clunky and bad. This may be due to the translation, but I suspect that it's more to do with Bilal overextending himself. He's got an excellent visual style, but he should leave the writing to others -- for example, his collaborations with Pierre Christian are far better works. Overall, nice to look at, but not to actually read.
Note: Bilal wrote and directed a 2004 film called "Immortal" based on parts of the trilogy. It's almost entirely CGI , and according to the reviews I've read, visually stunning and totally incomprehensible.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Real surrealism
Comment: My favorite of the recently printed material in the DC/Humanoids fiasco. Pretty hard to describe, other than to say it swings back and forth between anxiety dream and nightmare, but retains a certain haunting beauty throughout. The movie Bladerunner owes much of its visual style to this collection, though it reminds me more of Fellini's Satyricon.
The hardback edition is also probably the one really good printing job in the whole DC/Humanoids line.
Customer Rating:
Summary: visually outstanding, but the story is rather insipid
Comment: Make no mistake about it: Bilal has a wonderful style as a graphic artist. I love to look at his art. Unfortunately, he did not stop there and tried to write a genuine sci-fi story.
I got this series when it first came out in France and was learning French, so had looked at the pictures and was intrigued to get into the story. Alas, dictionary in hand, I went through slowly and carefully and found it, well, stupidly unbelievable, with stilted dialogue, little hard sci-fi that reflected some current trend in reality (what can make sci-fi great literature), and silly characters with no resonance whatsoever.
So, if you just want to look at the images, I wd give this five stars - easily. Bilal's sense of scene and the atmosphere of decadence, the acuity of his characters' poses, and a mysteriousness that runs thru his work are wonderful. However, the writing is so bad as to be laughable, which a recent re-reading reinforced for me. Moreover, the Egyptian Gods are props and equally boring, without any dimension that makes them interesting in any quirky way.
Not recommended as a sci-fi experience, tho it is fun to flip thru as a visual extravaganza. Bilal should be an illustrator for a good writer.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Distinctive visual style
Comment: And I mean that on two levels. First, Bilal's comic style is distinctive. His palette has almost no saturated colors, except a few where you least expect them. His people - well, looking at most of his faces, you'd get the impression that he really doesn't like people very much. A few of the women aside, he uses many kinds of ugliness to express the many ways for someone to be worth avoiding. And, maybe it's just the French comic style, but his stories are baffling, if they're stories at all.
The second level, within the Bilal style, is the visual style created and sustained throughout this series. There are green cats, blue hair, and garishly painted faces. Those few features stand out against a world generally gray with decay, and apparently heading downward fast. Over this crumbling cityscape, the ancient Egyptians gods return for reasons unknown. So does Nikopol, exiled into deep-space hibernation decades ago, and also returned for reasons unknown. He enters into a dispute between the gods, unwillingly at first, then because he can't function function any other way.
That's about the last thing that holds together as a story. The rest of the book is more of a sequence of vignettes flying in close formation. Like Druillet's work from the `70s, it's probably best to sit back and let it all unroll before you. Fans of tight scripts (which I am, mostly) might not find much to cling to, but there are other ways to enjoy a comic.
//wiredweird
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